Ask Hercule Poirot to find Rahul Gandhi!

Even though the writer who has now taken on Agatha Christie’s role as chronicler has clarified that Monsieur Hercule Poirot is not in any mood to come to India any time soon, the nation certainly could do with his expert services. The inexplicable and prolonged absence of Rahul Gandhi even during very crucial political moments has led to umpteen reiterations of the same question: where is the would-be president of the Indian National Congress? Clearly, the best efforts of self-appointed indigenous detectives have come to naught though he has allegedly been sighted in places as diverse as Myanmar and Uruguay. Therefore, given the mustachioed Belgian detective’s legendary investigative skills and ability to glean clues from the most unexpected quarters, all those concerned should consider making a renewed plea for Poirot to fly to India tout de suite.

New Delhi’s parlous pollution levels could make the fastidious and hypochondriacal sleuth reluctant to exercise his ‘leetle grey cells’, but the merits of the case should definitely intrigue him enough for his new handler to let him chance it, tisane and kerchief at hand. Of course, a certain generation may remember that an earlier Mystery of the Vanished Prince was actually solved by the Five Find-Outers, created by another legendary British author, Enid Blyton.